Peggy opened the meeting at 7:00 p.m. Robin shared a reading and a prayer.

The minutes from the October 16th meeting were reviewed and approved.

EF&G Team Meeting – Holly and Robin attended the EF&G meeting on November 6th and reported the following: The EF&G team is involved with a lot of different activities such as coffee hour, advent wreath making, the kids’ quarter sale, Christmas caroling, Jesus birthday party, and leaf raking. There was a discussion during the meeting about the youth groups and the possibility of joining with another youth group at Williston Emmanuel for some joint activities. Cindy shared that she is thinking about adding a late-afternoon worship service one Sunday a month that would be casual with a folk guitar, some contemporary music, and perhaps a potluck dinner. Anne shared that the Halloween party was a success with about 60 people attending. In addition, with 3 members of EF&G terming out this year, the team will need some help with recruiting new members.

Directory Update – Elinor reported that the team has not made any decisions yet about the direction that they will be going. They are waiting until the upgrade to Church Windows is completed so that they can effectively weigh all of the options.

Stewardship Results to Date – Elinor reported that the total of the pledges so far for this year is $223,015. Last year’s total pledges at the end of December were $349,902. The committee feels that the pledges will continue to come in and that the total will increase.

Budget Process

* Elinor, Ron, and Scott have been working on gathering the information for the budget. So far this year, our church has spent 81.2% of what we budgeted, which is in line with where it should be for this time of year. Some good news is that room rentals and plate offerings are higher than expected, and we are up by $4000. Team spending is on-track, and the House committee has reported a $6,300 savings in heating cost due to the heating system conversion to gas that happened last year.

* The budgeting process will begin the week after Thanksgiving. Candy will ask the teams to submit their budgets by then.

Nomination Process – Elinor Redmond, Elaine Brownell, and Nancy MacLean have met 3 times since the last Council meeting. They discussed the growth of our congregation and about how people are being treated when they join the church. Elinor said that an important piece of this process is personal interactions. They are working on finding ways to help new members find their niche in our church community. Some ideas include having “Getting to Know You” gatherings, follow-up phone calls, and using the participation forms to help new members become involved. Elinor said she feels that the church office is doing a great job with their piece of this, but follow-up needs to happen.

House Committee Update – Council members were given a copy of the minutes from the most recent House Committee meeting. Many positive things have been going on thanks to the work of the House Committee including completion of the wall repairs in Guptill Hall, repair of the front columns of the church entrance, exterior painting of the trim and outside doors, radon testing and mitigation of 509 Sawyer Street, and repairs of the parking lot. Peggy will send note to Deb Sandler thanking her and the committee for their good work and for moving other projects along.

Pastoral Moments – Peggy reported that Cindy said she has met with Bob Morse and that they are both very happy with the way things are going with the work they are doing together. Bob was hired on a trial basis as our Pastor of Member Care and Visitation to see how things worked out with his new position, and Cindy feels that this partnership has worked out very well and that Bob should officially be called for this position. Peggy is working on the terms of call for Bob and will meet with Cindy to finalize this call. The terms of call will be presented to the Council in December and then the call will be voted on in January at a Congregational meeting.

A Christian Family: Loving, Welcoming, Serving

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Whoever you are and wherever you
are on life's journey, you are welcome here. We look forward to meeting you.
Feel free to participate to the extent you're comfortable. Join in the hymns,
prayers, and fellowship as God invites you to join us from where ever you might
be on your journey. If you are interested in joining our church, ask about the
next Inquirers Meeting from any of the friendly faces you find in our church
family. We look forward to growing with you in faith.